Predominant Polarity and Polarity Index of Maintenance Treatments for Bipolar Disorder: A Validation Study in a Large Naturalistic Sample in Italy.

Abstract in brief

• The study investigates whether the concept of Predominant Polarity (PP)—whether a bipolar patient exhibits more depressive or manic episodes—can help guide treatment choices, specifically by examining the Polarity Index (PI), which measures the effectiveness of mood stabilizers in preventing depressive vs. manic episodes.
• The research involved 653 Italian bipolar disorder patients, categorized based on their main episode type (manic, depressive, or no clear preference), and compared the average PI across these groups, but found no significant differences between them except when using a specific calculation method.
• The findings suggest that while PP might be a useful clinical factor, more future studies are needed to confirm whether PP can reliably help clinicians select appropriate maintenance treatments tailored to individual bipolar disorder patterns.